NIMBY
Some local flavor from our neighbor to the West reached the New York Times today. A bunch of teenagers built a wiffle ball field in an overgrown Greenwich lot.
After three weeks of clearing brush and poison ivy, scrounging up plywood and green paint, digging holes and pouring concrete, Vincent, Justin and about a dozen friends did manage to build it — a tree-shaded Wiffle ball version of Fenway Park complete with a 12-foot-tall green monster in center field, American flag by the left-field foul pole and colorful signs for Taco Bell Frutista Freezes.Fenway? Rip that shit down! Seriously though, good for them. A bunch of kids took some initiative and did something other than beat up hookers in Liberty City. This is Greenwich though and some neighbors are battling to see it dismantled. It’s going to flood their neighborhood, plastic bat wielding hooligans are smashing their way into garages, and a broken bottle was discovered! Here’s a little taste of the opposition. I almost can’t believe this woman is real and not a villain out of some Chris Columbus 80’s teen movie.
Pate said her issue is not so much with the teens but with the potential for flooding of the town lot, which has an exposed storm drain maintained by the town. In March 2007, Pate said the drain clogged, flooding her finished basement and leaving so much mold that she decided to tear down her house and build a new one on the property.
5 comments :
As I read that article this morning I wondered "How can this woman POSSIBLY think that deciding to tear her house down and build another makes her sound at all sympathetic??"
I had a special appreciation for how she said her problem was all about the potential for flooding... yet she called the police 12,000 times over the July 4th weekend because of atrocities like people honking their horns and (horrors!) a broken bottle in her driveway.
More proof that Greenwich is for posuers. I remember an article in The Advocate years ago about someone, in Springdale I think, building a Fenway replica Whiffle ball park in their backyard. And the neighbors would come over to play in it.
Hmmm but this isn't the neighbors coming over... it's big 'ole high school boys. Would you want 40 unsupervised boys (that's how many were there one day) right next door to your house?
I haven't seen the lot, but there is something to be said for proper zoning. It sounds like the lot is now more of a park, and you don't just stick a park between houses. If this had been proposed, it obviously never would have passed.
I think it's odd the media seems to be all for this field, because who in their right minds wants a wiffle ball field by their house? It also seems like just because the people who own houses nearby have $$$, people have less sympathy for them.
Glad you posted about this, Blog Stamford!
Talk about raining on someone's parade... dude!
If the kids took the initiative to make something happen and they aren't making trouble, should the city worry about the drain? Let's find a compromise peoples!
Tear that thing down and send those kids home to play beer pong instead. That will show 'em!
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